Questions

We are a food discovery startup which tells its user the best dishes to have in a restaurant. The initial growth and retention for us has been quite low and we have not been able to make a single $ in revenue yet. From the initial customer interviews, we were quite optimistic that the product has great potential, however, things are turning out to be opposite of what we anticipated. At what stage should we take the business decision to continue/discontinue the product?

I agree with some of the other answers here: At this stage, you need to stop and review your product, your market, your monetization strategy and your burn rate.

Before attempting to pivot, raise more money, or shutdown, try this simple exercise that can help you get a clear 50,000ft view :

- Gather in a room 4-6 people who understand your product and your market. At least 1-2 should be outsiders (not employees)

- Build a first CANVAS (Business Model Generation : Read the book!) on a white board. This will help you think in depth about your value proposition(s), your Customer Segments, Channels, revenue streams, cost structure, etc.

- Let the people in the room give suggestions, write up to 3 elements per block, up to 3 words per element: This will force you to be concise and get straight to the 'meat' for each answer

- If there are multiple possibilities. as is almost always the case, create multiple canvases, one per hypothesis.

This can help you gain much better clarity (no pun intended) and unearth current challenges as well as new opportunities.

Good luck.

Dan


Answered 8 years ago

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